The Hot Springs star. (Hot Spings [Hot Springs], Dakota [Dakota Territory, i.e. S.D.]) 1886-189?, 1887-06-10
~eferaus' Uprmer.
lBb TAPE laB Army,
Any 1egalasisls and u. Ab.u,dit,..
ny lnpessd Upea he ome,r.
b Active sssvioa

~ AUWUkVlEXU
M Imposed upsa Tie oRo,u
b Active sssvioa.
Papa, Pom aud Ink As.inss Ann,
Ammunition and En,cls.
Out OF about sixteen hundred mer
enlisted at diiferenttimes in the writer,
regiment during the civil war, upward
OF two hundred able-bodied young fel.
lows were absent from the regimen,
during most of their term Of service,
being detached as clerks at yariou,
headquarters and military depot.. OF
in some of the departments at Wash.
ingtcn. while twenty or thirty Others
we're at all times similarly occupied in
the tield-about l2 per cent. These
active. intelligent men had enlisted in
good faith to fight in defense of the
Union, but red tape took them under
Its control. made them lay aside their
muskets and armed them with sharp
pointed steel pens instead.
One OF the most outrageously alb.
surd documents that have ever been
published with the sanction of the
United States government is that
known s -<sArmy Regulations" II
any one doubts this let him open the
volume and read for himself from title
page to colophon, as volunteer officers,
with much disgust, had to do during
the war, when they might hare been
better employed. It is a queer book,
and its history, il written, might prove
interesting. Substantially. as It is now,
1t has been since the Revolutionary
war. when it was taken bodily from
the regulations of the British
army. 1t represents the ideas, the
sentiments and the spirit of the
British army of q century ago.
II an officer cheat at cards or do any
thing else. dishonorable, the Army
Regulations direct that he be tried for
''conduct ~unbecoming an officer and
gentleman if a sergeant, q corporal,
or a private misbehave in the same
> way no is to be tried for ssconduct
prejudicial to good order and military
discipline" Not a word in the latter
case about the s.gentlemen." Here is
tho assumption, surviving from the
England of the eighteenth century,
that u commissioned officer is a gen
tlemap, but that one who volunteers in
the ranks in defense of the nation is
not. To make il worse this very
stupid book is inconsistent in it's
stupidity. It is almost certain that no
officer, whether of the regular or the
volunteer service, over succeeded in
carrying cut to the letter its mass of
directions, SO contradictory. are many
Of these. 1t was composed by old
fashioned martinets for old-fashioned
martinets, vet manya modern martinez
has almost gone mad in his endeavors
to olive up to it.
Ut course there must be some sort
Of accountability for government prop
erty, but this accountability ought not
to be exacted in the same way from an
army in the field during a serious and
protracted war as from a leisurely army
in barracks in time of peace. Common
sense would make the accountable
ity Of troops in the field to consist
chiefly in q rigorous supervision and
frequent inspection, Furnishing severely
officers or men detected in waste con
version, or destruction Of government
property. BUT what was the fact dur
ing the civil war? The red tape sys-
tenn of accountability was applied at
all times with harassing and sometimes
with disastrous effect to every officer
commanding a company or regiment.
Every company officer was held re-
sponsible for the money value of all
clothing. camp equipage. arms, ac-
coutrements, and ammunition issued
by the government to his command.
The officer who was popularity supposed
to be either leading. or directing a
fighting force in battle, or preparing it
for battle, was apt to be more con-
cerned about the footing up and the
balancing Of the endless little amounts
which from month to month were being
charged against him by the industrious
army of penmen in the quartermaster
and ordnance departments then about
the military efficiency of his command.
TIL e::payment of his salary depended
on his being able to account for all the
coats, trousers, shirts, shoes, caps,
hats, tents, pots, pans, knapsacks,
h%aversacks, canteens, muskets, baye-
nets, belts, and belt-plates, cartridg es
and caps, and every individ-
nal button, screw rivet. spare
nipple. etc., which might form a
part Of any Of these innumerable arti-
cles. No n in his senses believed
thst an officer in the field would con-
vert to his own use, sell, or make
away with any of these articles, or
their parts, even il an opportunity
were offered of his doing SO. There
was no opportunity. They were for
the use Of his men and they were in
his mems possession. But red tape
with its exaggerated love of sympathy
in figures thought otherwise. That
sort Of accountability which consists in
making and exactly balancing reports
and producing vouchers, should have
been r~equiredsof purely administrative
officers only; those Of the quartermas-
ter, commissary and ordnance staff.
The executive officer, whether of a
regiment or company, should have
been allowed to give all his attention
to purely military matters alone. Az
it was, there was an immense amount
Of waste and carelessness, which was
easily covered up by i~ngenuiously CON.
structed returns. There would have
been no more loss to the government